This picture is my belated contribution to yesterday's Ninth of November. Yes, it was the day of the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But November 9th was also the day of the German Revolution in 1918 (the beginning of the Weimar Republic), the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923 (Hitler's first unsuccessful grab for power; he was later appointed chancellor in January 1933, and his party, the NSDAP, was voted into power in March 1933), and Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht in 1938 (the beginning of the Holocaust). Let's remember that when celebrating our re-united Germany. After all, this country's history is complex, to say the least.
So, the two images -- one taken in SoHo/NYC and the other in Houston -- represent for me not only the complexities of the German unification, but also signify the schizophrenic nature of Germany and our history. Deutsch and Deutsch, German and German indeed.
(click on the image to enlarge)
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